spawned alternative facts now if you
google it Wikipedia I tell you that
alternative facts is a phrase that was
used by President Donald Trump’s counsel
Kellyanne Conway and a news interview
where she defended false statements
about the attendance at his inauguration
but I didn’t come here to talk to you
about politics but rather misinformation
and untruths I like to define
alternative facts as falsehoods that
rarely reflect reality or as I like to
put it lies lies and more lies now on
the surface you might say who would who
cares so what right they lied about
attendance but the real problem lies
when we as a society are inundated with
untruths and sometimes society puts out
these alternative facts sometimes
deliberately other times without knowing
but nevertheless they have very real
ramifications and impacts on our lives
and even more what you decide to accept
as truth matters the most so what is
your truth your truth is what you want
it to be you must be the architects of
your future and again what you accept
sometimes can alter everything in your
very existence let me explain what I
mean media often puts out falsehoods
like Trayvon Martin seventeen-year-old
Trayvon Martin was seen as little more
than a troublemaker in a neighborhood
where he didn’t belong and oftentimes
youth of color are mischaracterized in
media like 12 year-old Tamir rice who’s
unfortunately not with us anymore
because apparently he was acting like a
thug while 28 year old Ryan Lochte was
characterized by today anchor Billy Bush
as merely a kid
going abroad and sometimes magazines can
whisper to us and tell us that we are
not beautiful another example of how the
voice or even the silence of people in
power can infer these alternative facts
that are ultimately harmful to us if we
believe them in 2014 New York Fashion
Week
reported that eighty-two point seven
percent of their models were white while
only six percent were black and only two
percent were Latino inundated with
images that rarely look like you can
sometimes whisper you are not enough or
even schools can support alternative
facts to the student who acts out in
class because they just want someone to
hear their pain or maybe they didn’t eat
the night before alternative facts might
suggest that that kid is defiant
disrespectful according to the US
Department of Education Office of Civil
Rights black students represent only 18
percent of the total u.s. population and
yet 43 percent of all students with more
than one out of school suspension or is
it our own music and culture that can
whisper these alternative facts to us in
my work with youth I come across a lot
of young women who literally define
their value by how they look or whether
or not they are bad and bujji a popular
hip-hop song today or young men that I
work with whose masculinity is rooted in
their presence in the streets or in drug
houses also known as Bandos and our
problems really solved with being turned
up or liddy with drugs that further
distance us from the reality that’s
waiting for us I would rather be awake
aware and present in my reality so that
I could impact it and try to change it
to be what I want it to be we must be
vigilant and focus on blocking out the
negative messages
that ultimately can be harmful to us
even parents can sometimes infer
alternative message to their kids when
the best of intentions are there I grew
up in Eden wall projects Bronx New York
rated as one of the worst neighborhoods
in the Bronx and on any given day eating
wall would take me on this journey
through war zones poverty crackheads but
luckily I had two parents that loved me
so much and it’s still the best of
values in me my father a hard-working
prideful man who always tried to instill
a good work ethic in me he once told me
even though you’re poor you don’t have
to look poor when you leave the house
it’s a lesson that stuck with me even
till this day and in pushing this work
ethic he would tell me if you have to
pack bags in a grocery store to survive
you do that now I got his point his
point was to always work hard for what
you want in life and to literally do
anything that you need to do to survive
my mother on the other hand who was also
a hard-working woman and wanted to
impress upon me a good work ethic
couldn’t even fathom the idea of me ever
packing bags in a grocery store
she always pushed me to dream higher to
want more and while he didn’t mean it
sometimes the words that we utter can
alter people’s realities if we accept
them so when I was 12 I walked into a
barber shop and I asked him to set up
shop and brush the hair off of clients
as they got out of the chairs I also
swept floors and on any average day I
might make about $70 at 12 when I was 15
I worked at major record labels we are
Warner Elektra and Atlantic Records and
by 16 I had this crazy idea that if I
just walked into a random dentist’s
office and convinced them why it was
imperative that they needed to hire me
that they just might do it and guess
what they did til this day thank you dr.
Sadler
by 17 I met an orthopedic surgeon and I
had the courage simply to ask if I could
shadow and watch an operation I remember
to this day when the blood splattered
right on my smock and to some they might
have freaked out and thought it was a
crazy traumatic moment to me it was a
moment rooted in heaven because it was
something that I wanted to do by 17 by
18 I was working behind the scenes at
MTV watch how I’ve dispelled the
alternative facts watch how I’ve changed
my future continue to watch me and track
me and see how I will continue to do
that as you must do yourselves the world
is filled with alternative facts that
ultimately will be I promise you harmful
if you accept them as truths so it’s
today
that I asked you to stand firm focus
vigilant and dispel alternative facts
and make your own future no more alternative facts thank you